Responding to claims that its Maps were being used to coordinate Russian military activity in Ukraine, the company began removing user-submitted locations within the borders of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. The company is removing new content out of an abundance of caution.
On Tuesday, people on social media accused Google Maps of hosting content that was used to target cities such as Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Oleksandr Balatskyi, one of the people who said the tags match the places the missile strikes are today, said the tags were created on Feb 28th. The tags, or user-generated pins, began appearing yesterday, according to people.
The existence of specific pins or the claim that Russia's military added them to Maps were not independently verified. Dozens of users have shared the same set of pictures.
Some of the edits that reference farms were made more than a year ago, was the conclusion of an investigation by Google. The company said it was pausing new edits and removing edits from maps in the region.
Out of an abundance of caution, we are temporarily blocking new edits from being made and removing user contributions like photos, videos, reviews and business information from the maps of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.
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